how to get a handle on the status bar in iOS

I have an audio recording application. And when it is recording in the background, I see a red horizontal bar on the top w开发者_开发知识库ith my project name on it. I want to get a handle on that bar so that I can display additional things there. How do I get a handle on it and what exactly is that bar called?

If your app is not running in the foreground you don't have access to the screen, so you can't get a handle to the status bar. And even if you could, you wouldn't be able to change it.